Mara Bar Serapion on Wealth

Follow diligently learning rather than riches.  For the greater are one’s possessions, the greater is the evil attendant upon them.  For I have myself observed that, where a man’s goods are many, so also are the tribulations which happen to him; and, where luxuries are accumulated, there also do sorrows congregate; and, where riches are abundant, there is stored up the bitterness of many a year.

~ Mara Bar Serapion

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_VIII/Memoirs_of_Edessa_And_Other_Ancient_Syriac_Documents/A_Letter_of_Mara,_Son_of_Serapion